Babyface vs. Babyface matches in the WWF are super-rare and always interesting. Especially when one team always shows a willingness to cheat.
WWF WRESTLEFEST ’91:
* AMAZING. The WWE Vault has been uploading all sorts of old Coliseum Videos. These were great fun to rent as a kid- in an era where every syndicated show was jobber squashes and ending with Owen Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow as your only star match, these were actually kind of a great sight. Of course, in retrospect it’s all fuck finishes and guys mostly dogging it in matches, but it provides TONS of rarities. Like this one- The Ultimate Warrior vs. Earthquake! The Mountie vs. The Big Boss Man! The Rockers vs. Power & Glory! Ted DiBiase vs. The Texas Tornado! Koko B. Ware vs. The Warlord! British Bulldog vs. Haku! Marty Jannetty vs. Pat Tanaka! Rick “The Model” Martel vs. a BABYFACE Greg “The Hammer” Valentine! And a huge dream match- The Legion of Doom vs. The Hart Foundation! Babyface vs. Babyface! Good thing Bret doesn’t have a history of wrestling like a total asshole every time his opponent is another babyface!
Our host is “Macho Man” Randy Savage, “Man of Leisure”, resting by his pool and having a nightmare about the Ultimate Warrior defeating him at WrestleMania VII. Newly retired, Savage would be a commentator/host for a while until Warrior quit, requiring him to get into a feud with Jake Roberts that is well-remembered today but was a total box office bust. Our commentary team for this is Lord Alfred Hayes with Sean Mooney, which is an odd “C-Team” duo, as we’ll see.
THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR vs. EARTHQUAKE (w/ Jimmy Hart):
* Probably the tape’s main event leads us off, with a 27-year old Tenta looking positively ancient in a pre-match green-screen interview where he references their history (a push-up contest from I think late 1989). Warrior’s in orange, and Quake is in his later gear (much more elaborate and dignified than his baby blue unitard).
Quake attacks before the bell, but Warrior immediately starts no-selling and some no-sold shoulderblocks just have him resorting to the flying shoulderblock to bring the big man down! Knocking down the 460-pounder in the opening seconds- interesting work choice. Warrior gets distracted by Hart on the floor and so stealthy Earthquake is able to nail him. Quake skooshes him into the ring apron and works the back in the ring (patented “Earthquake Jumping Kicks”!). Quake chokes him and Warrior doesn’t even bother to put his hands on his throat to sell it (they’re just resting on the ropes!), and Quake keeps up the boots, and a knee ends a potential Warrior comeback. Quake actually keeps up attacks on the lower back to a writhing Warrior and bearhugs him to the boredom of the crowd. Warrior SHAKES HIS ASS to mount a comeback but Quake just lifts him to stop that. Instead of cueing the comeback, Quake just lies him down and hits a big elbow, then does the Earthquake Vertical Splash… and Warrior kicks out! He starts pumping his fist as the fans come alive- Quake hammers away and gets nothing as Warrior keeps doing his silly dance, then a clothesline hits! Quake has a great “…” stunned sell, then goes wide-legged as Warrior nails him again. Another sets him up for a bodyslam and Warrior hits the Running Splash… for the pin (5:37)! Wait, I was not expecting a clean finish here. Warrior wins! He even tosses Jimmy onto Quake to get another one over on him.
This is interesting to watch from the perspective of comparing Warrior to say, Hulk Hogan. They’re obviously doing the same Superbabyface Template, but you can see Hogan’s advantages plainly here. He actually acted hurt, pleading for the fans’ support, writhing in agony, etc. Warrior just “lies down and puffs his cheeks”. And his own comebacks don’t bring the fans in- Hogan was ALWAYS looking to the fans, even mid-comeback, like doing an “are you with me?” thing to bring them into the ass-kicking. Warrior just seems to arbitrarily fire back or do the rope-shakes with no acknowledgement of his Warriors. He doesn’t even seem to personally interact with the heel! They’re just there to watch it happen. The match overall was pretty ass- sort of like those bits in the Royal Rumble where everyone is doing the “Lazy Lean” pretending to push each other, except a whole wrestling match done that way.
Rating: *3/4 (lazy dogshit match- Warrior was slack-assing it and Quake just leaned on him most of the match- extra points for a clean finish, though!)
MANAGER CAM:
THE MOUNTIE (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. THE BIG BOSS MAN:
* These two feuded for a big chunk of 1991. The idea for this match is the camera is mostly behind Jimmy all match long, showing him talking shit and trying to argue with the ref and stuff. Boss Man is IMPOSSIBLY svelte, here- man I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this skinny.
Mountie attempts to attack before the bell but Boss Man boots the shock-stick away from him while Jimmy jaws with the ref (“Get the nightstick away from him! Show some authority, you idiot!”). Mountie does some leapfrogs but gets caught in a spinebuster and Jimmy turns away in disgust, then gets this great wimpy “NYAAHHHHH!” when Boss Man sneaks up behind him and steals his jacket. Mountie eats a shellacking as Jimmy whines for his jacket back and demands a DQ. Boss Man gets his “running sit-out onto them on the ropes” move (Twice!) and Mountie takes more beatings until finally dodging a knee in the corner. At Jimmy’s direction, he stays on the knee. Boss Man does a great bit where he takes a wild swing but collapses after missing, and Mountie stays on the knee until he demands the house mic and shouts “IIIII AMMMM DA MOUNTIIIIEEEE!”. Jimmy, who has been ordering him to stay on Boss Man all match, is all okay with this, but of course it backfires- he turns around into a punch combo and the Boss Man Slam beats him at (6:29). Boss Man seemed to dominate this feud- the Mountie was largely a low-tier guy until they needed a transitional IC Champion for Piper. However, Mountie gets the last laugh- Jimmy gives him the shock-stick and instructs him too “Zap ‘im!” and so Mountie lurks up and shocks the Boss Man when he grabs at the heel.
The match was pretty energetic but short- 100% a Mountie ass-beating for 3-4 minutes, then he controls a minute with leg stuff, then walks into a finisher. As a piece of tape content this is actually somewhat solid, because the gimmick gets tired but it’s only a short match, thus never goes on for too long.
THE ROCKERS (Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty) vs. POWER & GLORY (Hercules & Paul Roma, w/ The Doctor of Style, Slick):
* We get an aspect of the Rockers/P&G feud as well! This went over much of the summer but I don’t recall it got a real ending. The Rockers are probably in their best, priciest gear- what look like reflective black tights with neon yellow tiger strips and tassels. It’s both their best stuff and most state of the art gear, and something that would look too dated in only a year or two. Power & Glory haven’t yet become jobbers and are in quite stylish black tights with white lightning bolts on one side and a logo on the other (on a different side for each guy).
They spend ages jawing and preening, but after getting caught, Shawn hits a rana and the Rockers hit their double crescent kicks on BOTH guys (Marty missing Herc by a foot but okay) to start us off hot. Roma catches Marty from behind and works him over with his huge standing dropkick and some cheating, but Marty pulls some slick evasive maneuvering to tag him. Roma taunts Shawn to allow some double-teaming by the heels, and Hercules 360s Marty off a clothesline and press slams him. Marty fights out from Roma a couple times but SMOKES his head on the mat spinning off a clothesline (lol drugs) and gets worked over again, but finally dodges and Roma “Bret Harts” into the corner for a double-down- Shawn gets the hot tag and bashes Roma around, hitting a great leaping back elbow and neckbreakers him, then Herc comes in and eats an atomic drop/elbow to hit the floor and Roma gets double-slammed. Slick prevents the Double Fistdrop and provokes Marty into chasing him, and that’s the Count-Out victory for Power & Glory at (12:04). However, the fans get what they want when Slick hangs out in the ring after P&G are shoulderblocked out, eating a double-clothesline and double-dropkick, looking like a hapless doofus. The fans react better for that (and Shawn putting on his hat) than any actual spots in the match.
A solid little match with some good spots, but nothing that flashy- two minutes of talking, a long heat sequence on Marty with a few moves and a chinlock to a false comeback, then some slick Rockers moves into a weak finish to keep the feud percolating. Hercules wasn’t showing much, but Roma was in full “PUSH ME!” mode, flinging himself around, doing exaggerated mannerisms, and even doing stuff like missing a punch on Mary and slamming the mat, jumping up all “OW MY HAND!”.
Rating: **1/2 (a decently hard-fought match for a Coliseum Video one)
How much you gotta work out to have your abs visible through your shirt like that? Jesus.
“THE MILLION DOLLAR MAN” TED DIBIASE vs. “THE TEXAS TORNADO” KERRY VON ERICH (w/ Virgil):
* An interesting one, with two guys on a similar tier at this point. In the Coliseum-exclusive promo, Ted becomes one of many heels to knock Kerry’s intelligence, saying “You’re a great wrestler, but you have a Cadillac body, and a Volkswagen brain!”. It’s funny how relentless all the heels were on Kerry’s “dumb jock” ways- a rare instance of heels mocking a real thing. Kerry gets on the mic after the bell rings and taunts DiBiase about Virgil no longer being at his side, and then calls out the man! Virgil is fucking JACKED- comic book artists are often lectured that you can’t really see a person’s abs through their shirt no matter how tight it is, but this dude’s rocking a full six-pack through his. VINDICATION!
DiBiase heads out to jaw with Virgil and is like “just a minute!” to Von Erich behind him, then turns around “WHAT-UGGHGHGH!” as Kerry just punches the shit out of him, haha. Hayes, playing heel, indicates this is totally unfair, especially when Virgil throws Ted back in after some turnbuckle shots and a clothesline put him on the floor. Ted’s wise to Tornado and starts decking him when he tries to sneak in again, but gets slammed into the post (lol Kerry forgets to actually counter so Ted runs himself in). Kerry keeps on him, even hitting a Tornado Punch on the floor (which is a bit early), but Ted ducks another and Kerry smokes the post, having to pull his wristband off so he can check the bones in his wrist. DiBiase follows by slamming the hand into the ring steps. Ted works more strikes, as is usual for him (he’s so scientific you forget he’s actually a brawler in WWF) including that fistdrop. He tosses Tornado, but when Kerry hits the apron, Virgil does the “WrestleMania V” finish and holds the leg so Kerry lands on DiBiase for the three at (6:25)! Another surprise!
So this one furthers the Ted/Virgil feud, giving DiBiase another pinfall loss in a year that was NOT good for him (it’s his last year as a solo act), and almost half the post-bell period was Ted yelling at Virgil on the floor. Poor Ted practically had to wrestle himself at points (the dreaded self-post shot, lol), but was one of the best at doing just that, and at least Kerry had the neat bit checking the bones in his wrist for damage.
Rating: *3/4 (fine but SUPER short- only about 3 minutes of wrestling)
The most “Hair in 1991” shot possible.
“THE BRITISH BULLDOG” DAVEY BOY SMITH vs. HAKU:
* Oooooooooooooooof Haku gets the “currently in the ring” entrance and no manager- he done. He’s obviously here to job to the hot new act as Davey-Boy returns on ALL THE STEROIDS. He’s got his long white tights on, and Haku’s in the purple/turquoise island design shorts.
Lord Alfred drops the interesting fact that not only did Davey-Boy & Haku play rugby as youngsters, but so did MOONEY, telling fans he even travelled to Europe for it. CITATION NEEDED- I can only find random guys sharing his name who played more recently. Bulldog uses a lot more speed than most strong guys, doing Owen-style flips out of a wristlock and two big leapfrogs into a dropkick. Haku whines for a time-out and complains of hair-pulls as they’re doing the “Generic Wrestling Match” like it’s day one, but very smoothly. Bulldog with a headlock, countered to a smooth armdrag, then an armlock, but a monkey-flip is turned into an inverted atomic drop. Haku PLANTS him with a piledriver for two, but then starts fucking around with restholds like a blatant hairpull & sleeper- Bulldog fights out and an O’Connor roll is countered and both guys crash into each other, Haku getting the better of it and working him over, but Bulldog fights out of a chinlock and starts no-selling, avoiding a dropkick and backdrops & clotheslines Haku for two. Haku catches him with his head down but Bulldog goes behind with a crucifix for the pin at (7:52). Not exactly decisive but pretty typical for a Star vs. Star match in 1991!
Not bad for eight minutes- it wasn’t exactly flashy but it was interesting how two pros can take “The Generic Match” and make it look way better than, say, the rookies who’d normally be doing this. Like, nothing here was outside of what you learn in basic training, with fight-ups, restholds, O’Connor rolls, atomic drops and more, but they actually swing the momentum around more times and include more hope spots to reliably fill 8 minutes and end with a clean pin that still saves Haku some face because he just got caught vs. being crushed.
Rating: **1/4 (a solid TV match with a clean finish)
Macho Man plays pool by himself, managing to be entertaining just by rambling (“or BILLIARDS, as the professionals call it- I’m a champion, might as well talk like a champion! I hope I WINNNNN- last time I played myself three times I only won twice!”). He segues to Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake‘s grooming tips, as Brutus, with the world’s most garish widow’s peak mega-mullet and diamond-shaped holes all the way down both sides of his purple tights, has the gall to accuse his subject Bob of completely lacking in personal grooming. He pours black mud from the Dead Sea into Bob’s skin while the man desperately tries to keep a straight face (he has clearly been instructed not to speak or react). Man Brutus has one PUFFY face. As I google the symptoms of cocaine abuse and indeed find that one on there. He blow-dries the mud off the man’s face with a leaf-flower giving us our “money shot” visual of the segment, though sadly there’s no follow-up to show how handsome Bob has now become.
I see Martel hasn’t missed too many pharmaceutical appointments, either. You don’t see that “bisected bicep” look very often. Though that is why they’re called that.
GREG “THE HAMMER” VALENTINE vs. RICK “THE MODEL” MARTEL:
* The Model has finally finished his ages-long feud with Jake Roberts and is now being put up against a BABYFACE Greg “The Hammer” Valentine. Valentine had basically done everything possible, tumbled down the card into a Ronnie Garvin feud, formed a failed tag team with the Honky Tonk Man, and more, and was finally turned babyface to give him something to do before he was done. This is woeful miscasting, but they had to try SOMETHING. His theme music gives me flashbacks to the Williams Street vanity plate. Martel’s in dark purple trunks and Valentine in black trunks with yellow boots.
The first rows get into a small “Hammer!” chant as Hayes pouts “Well he (Hammer) has two good moves; Martel has about TWENTY-TWO good moves” while the two do the Coslieum Video Special with go-nowhere holds and Martel bailing to the floor to whine. Hammer puts on a NASTY-looking headlock and when Martel fights out, dodges a knee into the corner and preys on Martel’s injured leg. Martel’s good at flailing around like a baby- selling without drawing any sympathy because it’s so overwrought and weenie-ish. Valenetine works a spinning toehold and actually makes it look better than Dory Funk ever did, but gets booted in the face. He presses the assault with overhead forearms and keeps on the leg until Martel just freaks out and strangles him to come back, dumping him and limping around while working the back. Hayes & Monsoon diss an abdominal stretch like Monsoon would as Martel gets hiptossed out and slugged as he comes off the top, Valentine smashing him around the turnbuckles- Martel hits the floor and they brawl aggressively until it’s a Double Count-Out at (8:36)- aw it was a decent scrap! But then Valentine goes into the post and they hit the ring, where the ref stops Martel from spraying Arrogance and so Valentine beats Rick down and hits the Figure-Four! The fans love it as Martel waves his arms around and slams the mat in agony.
Martel even SELLS French!
A good performance by both- Martle with his theatrical selling and Valentine with very snarly, stiff offense that was tight as hell to contrast Martel flailing around. Both guys were real pros but obviously fighting to a DCO-type finish as they were doing legwork and backwork only a couple minutes in. Not sure why exactly they’re keeping both guys strong in this situation (Greg’s push was DONE) but solid stuff.
Rating: **1/2 (a good example of both guys’ best attributes- stiff fighting from Valentine and comic overdoing it by Martel)
THE WARLORD (w/ The Doctor of Style, Slick) vs. KOKO B. WARE:
* hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa they’re putting stuff like THIS on tape. The Warlord taking on the bottom-tier babyface on the roster. Koko at this point is just about gonna be repackaged as a tag guy, while they’re still trying to figure out the Warlord’s proper place on the card. Koko’s in bisected red & purple tights, which I don’t remember seeing. Warlord, as usual, is on ALL THE STEROIDS (something that would actually hurt his career when the feds came calling).
Warlord easily overpowers his dwarfish opponent to start, but Koko gets some jabs and ducks under him a bunch to make him look like a boob, celebrating on the floor. Koko keeps going to the eyes to counter brawling, but gets backdropped to the floor and Baba chopped. Koko sunset flips in but gets slugged and bearhugged- Warlord just tires of it and dumps him down without a comeback, but misses an elbowdrop to cue the comeback. Koko fires off a headbutt and schoolboys him for two, then dupes him with a fakeout cross-body and missile dropkicks him (very smooth, but that li’l tap looks really soft). Warlord handily kicks out and Koko gets too aggressive, running the ropes and naturally misses a leaping nothingburger and eats shit against the ropes, unable to deal with the raw speed & agility of the Warlord. The Warlord Powerslams him Davey-Boy style for the win at (6:40). A very slow, steady match where the Warlord does his usual “walk & stomp, plus bearhug” stuff, Koko using some evasion to show smarts and a speed advantage, but of course he calls for the same old finish he ALWAYS does and that’s that. Unimpressive, but fine.
Rating: *1/2 (a pretty lazy Warlord match with some decent Koko moves thrown in)
THE LEGION OF DOOM (Hawk & Animal) vs. THE HART FOUNDATION (Bret “Hitman” Hart & Jim “Anvil” Neidhart):
* And HERE’s the good stuff! This is the reason why I chose this show in particular, as I’ve been searching for this complete match for ages, having only caught the last few minutes of it for a past column! This is, I believe, the only time these two teams ever faced each other- Bret mentions in his book how Hawk gleefully took a shitload of downers before the match like “lolz” and Bret was offended, as this was their first and only meeting, and he wanted it to be special. Bret’s book was often brutally honest and his stories are famously accurate (if biased), so let’s see if we can tell. … not that “Hawk is fucked up for this match” is ever a particularly hard guess to make. The Harts were nearly done as a team by this point (this is actually filmed BEFORE WrestleMania VII, when they lost the belts, if this is indeed the match I’m seeing on Cagematch- the match time is the same). This is babyface vs. babyface, which is an extreme rarity at this point in time for the WWF, and oh boy you KNOW how Bret responds to matches like that…
Anvil & Animal start off matching power, taking turns shoving the other out of lockups, slug it out, do a no-sold shoulderblock and finally double clothesline each other, having established parity in raw strength! Animal dodges an elbow and hits his jumping shoulderblock, but Anvil powers Hawk over to Bret, who hammers away with elbows with his mouth hanging open (I’ve heard he could give instructions without moving his lips, explaining how this weird look is his default), escaping a press-slam but getting backdropped to the floor by a blank-faced Hawk. Dear lord, Hawk has a tiny PONYTAIL at the end of his two strips of hair! God, more 1991 Hair. Bret manages a neckbreaker and escapes while Hawk just stares at him, and Hawk shoots off the ropes against Neidhart and BLAMMO- Bret just absolutely nukes him with a knee to the back as he comes off, hahahaaha. That’s right- the Harts are going to CHEAT tonight! Bret beats on Hawk on the floor while Animal has a conniption on the ring apron. Anvil hits a clotheslin, and Bret drops the elbow & backbreaker, then Jim hits a resthold & Bret the 2nd-rope elbow and yeah, Hawk’s selling is SUPER lazy and amounts to pretty much “respond to the impact but nothing else”- he sold the dirty kidney-shot well but that was it.
Bret has to essentially wrestle himself to get Hawk up from a front facelock, allowing a false tag to Animal, letting the Harts get their double-whip assisted shoulder-ram from the Anvil, who gets ANOTHER resthold, and this time when Hawk fights up Bret just walks over and decks Animal so he gets chased around. Oh that ASSHOLE- once he rolls into the ring, Bret just turtles up so he won’t get hurt and the ref makes Animal leave him alone, allowing the Harts to hit the Hart Attack! hahahaah what a piece of shit. Animal has to save on the pin, and as he’s leaving Bret just runs in (no tag) and hits the inverted atomic drop and continues beating on Hawk (who’s 50/50 on selling the strikes), but in some CONTINUITY, they do another double-whip, but Bret charges in and chest-bumps the corner! Neidhart gets clotheslined! Hot tag Animal! He comes in and kicks both guys’ asses, shoulderblocking Bret down, whips him into Neidhart, and now the *LOD* get a double-whip, Bret eating a corner clothesline! They prep the Doomsday Device, but Neidhart pulls Hawk’s foot and Bret victory rolls Animal for two! Bret’s backbreaker sets up their Slingshot Clothesline set-up move! But the Harts’ double-teams bites them in the ass at last- Neidhart ROCKET LAUNCHES Bret off the top, but Animal just catches him and spins around into a powerslam! Hawk trips up Neidhart so he can’t save! 1-2-3 (12:21)! Just like that, the LOD wins! And look! It’s all good now- Hawk & Neidhart shake hands and the LOD helps Bret up so all the babyfaces can show there’s no hard feelings! Bret of course still sells absolute death, like Animal just crushed his chest. What a champ- can’t even stand up right.
I love Bret in babyface vs. babyface matches, haha. Just has that “do anything to win” attitude and enough edginess to his work that he can effortlessly slip into “heel mode” and be a little mean. Like “Hey I’d like to beat these guys fair and square, but if we start losing, well what are ya gonna do?”. The way he’d run in and strike Animal to provoke him, set up a chase, then cover up like a total weenie to make sure Animal looks like the aggressor and get sent away, take a quick look like “okay he’s not looking- GO!” and hit their tag finisher just like that. So unfair and so slick. Hawk definitely wasn’t really “in it” for this one (Bret had to basically drag him down withhis hand for the Hart Attack) and was iffy on selling- he sold the kidney-shot like it came out of a gun but at points appeared to forget when to sell strikes and just got SUPER lazy in all the fight-up holds the Harts had to stick him in. Even so, the Harts ran a great match around him, Bret cheating and being a total asshole to set up double-teams and use the tag formula to perfection, then using continuity to mess up their second attempt at the slingshot double-whip move (with Bret doing his patented chest bump), and Anvil immediately gets his ass clotheslined down to make it even BETTER. Animal comes in and wrecks house, the Harts fight dirty to avoid eating a finisher, but we get one of those “Reversals = Death” WWF finishers (which are very big in babyface vs. babyface matches) and Bret sells death even while they’re doing a mutual-gratitude thing in the ending.
Rating: ***1/4 (very good despite Hawk’s inadequacies as a performer- to be fair he’s always kinda like that, though)
MARTY JANNETTY vs. TANAKA (w/ Mr. Fuji):
* haha, what the fuck is this? All the matches on this tape and you do a Rockers/Orients split in a totally dark arena? They just realize they had 10 minutes left to fill like a Saturday Night’s Main Event taping? Marty’s already FOUGHT on this tape! Of course the Rockers were married to the Orient Express for AGES, owing to their familiarity in AWA and the guarantee of a good match every time. Tanaka has apparently lost the name “Pat” at this point. He’s in black karate pants while Marty’s in a tie-die disaster set of tights.
Tanaka takes a KARATE STANCE to start, but manages some shots when Fuji distracts Marty. They do a lightning-fast criss-cross as the MSG crowd appears to boo the shit out of a triumphant Marty, haha. They have a chat and Marty fakes him out and knocks him to the floor again, following with a pescado, at which point I realize I’ve reviewed this match before with Heenan on commentary, lol. Copy and paste time! Marty hits a pescado (still a big high-spot back then) to a big reaction, and Tanaka milks the count and then fucks with the top turnbuckle when Fuji distracts the idiot ref. Tanaka taunts Marty as they are noticeably padding out the match-time, but lures him into that corner, only the pad doesn’t come off, so instead he dodges him in the other corner and Marty flies over the top and to the floor. Tanaka works him over slowly, but Marty comes off the second rope and slams his face into the mat- Tanaka gets his foot on the ropes and then uses the ropes for his OWN pin, but is caught. Tanaka scores a crescent kick and a big spinning forearm smash, getting two, then chops him straight over the top rope. Marty slides under him to get back in, but puts his head down and gets CRUSHED with an axehandle to the lower back- great sell-job, marking that as devastating. Tanaka moves in for the kill with a Tombstone, but shockingly Marty uses the reversal to haul him back, and fucking MURDERS him with the sit-out version! Holy fuckballs- that’s academic for Marty at (10:54) as even Heenan marks out for it.
Very long match, obviously padded a bit (especially early, with guys hitting the floor a lot), with some good commentary from the old-school guys debating strategy, the upcoming Mania match, and the wisdom of taking such a match so soon before the show. They got into a good battle in the end, each guy maintaining offense only for a bit so it didn’t get boring, and HOLY SHIT that ending. Tanaka looks like he took it right on the noggin, and I’m shocked he wasn’t Austin’d right there.
Rating: *** (solid little TV match- a bit padded but an epic ending)
Overall, this would have RULED to Young Jab- Warrior/Earthquake is a big headliner, as is Harts/LOD (babyface/babyface matches are rare for good reason since it splits the crowd and wrecks heat segments, but they’re fun to look at), plus a bunch of quickie squashes and two fuck finishes. This kind of compilation is more or less exactly the kind of stuff that would main event a Saturday TV show as a “Feature Match”- same effort level and finishes, generally, but they’re pretty rare treats in this era, especially for the rare bout in that “lots of effort/good finish” sweet spot. The main issue was the Sean Mooney/Lord Alfred duo- they had no chemistry, couldn’t razz each other much, Hayes was ineffective “going heel” because he’d say only a compliment or two to the bad guy rather than celebrate or ignore cheating, and Mooney was more of a generic dweeb who never had any real emotional investment in what was going on.
